…A MEASURE OF LIFE

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Monthly Archives: February 2015

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Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, Pale Honey are a duo consisting of Tuva Lodmark (guitar and vocals) and Nelly Daltrey (drums). They have been described as being like early PJ Harvey or Sleater-Kinney. Whilst the format of singer/guitarist and drummer has become quite popular over the last few years, their debut single ‘Youth’ suggests that there is much that they might have up their sleeves. There’s been quite a bit of acclaim for this track online, which comes out this Monday.

Their self-titled debut will be out on May 4, in the meantime, turn this up loud and play again and again!

February 6 marked what would have been Robert Nesta Marley’s 70th Birthday. This year there are rumours of all sorts of releases to coincide, and the first to come along is this excellent recording, previously unreleased of an American gig in June 1978.

There’s been previous live Marley albums over the years – Babylon By Bus, Live! (AKA Live At the Lyceum) and this joins them as an excellent album in its own right. Recorded around the time of the release of Kaya and not long after the still-astounding Exodus, what you have is a band at the peak of their powers, and an audience who are loving every minute.

It takes key album tracks and a number of the hits, but what is particularly exciting is the final three tracks of ‘War’/’No More Trouble,’ ‘Get Up Stand Up’ and the closing ‘Exodus’ where the passion and belief in Rastafarianism really shines through.

This really is no opportunistic cash in. Marley fans will be delighted, and if it’s not necessarily the starting point for those yet to investigate Marley (disturbing concept, but anything’s possible) it is a document of an excellent gig. Let’s hope further releases are of this calibre.

I can find very little information about them, other than that they are Gustaf Montelius, Kristoffer Byström and Andreas Sandberg. This appears to be the only song on their soundcloud, so take it at face value, and enjoy…

South London trio Happyness (yes, ‘y’ not an ‘i’) released their debut album Weird Little Birthday last year and saw them pick up quite a lot of media acclaim. They have now signed to hip indie label Moshi Moshi, who will re-release Weird Little Birthday on March 30, including this new track ‘A Whole New Shape.’

The band are Jonny Allan, Benji Compston and Ashley Cooper. Listening to the music on their soundcloud page, influences surely include classic US indie rock, including the likes of Pavement, Yo La Tengo and
Wilco.

Check out this rather fine earlier track, the wonderfully named ‘Great Minds Think Alike, All Brains Taste The Same.’ If Hannibal Lecter wrote song titles…

Poor Ash. Rather like a few years ago when Suede announced a new album, only to have it overshadowed by the release of David Bowie’s first album in a decade, little could they have known that when they announced their new album, the news of Blur’s first studio album in 12 years would overshadow it.

The band’s sixth album is entitled Kablammo!. There is no release date or tracklisting for the album as yet, but it can be pre-ordered through PledgeMusic.

The first track to be heard from the album is ‘Cocoon’, which can also be bought online and can be streamed below:

The first track to do the rounds ‘Go Out’ can be bought now, online – and the lyric video – which appears to feature a woman making vanilla ice-cream to compliment the cover art of the album, can be streamed above.

Whilst Blur never officially split, they were inactive for much of the 2000s, after the release of their seventh album, Think Tank. That album featured guitarist Graham Coxon playing on only one track -‘Battery In Your Leg.’ Since 2009, as well as playing live the band have issued two singles ‘Fool’s Day‘ in 2010 and ‘Under The Westway‘/’The Puritan’ in 2012.

Back in late 1991, Tori Amos’ ‘Silent All These Years’ appeared on the radio. It was unsettling, vastly different and utterly thrilling. It later became a Top 40 hit on re-release, and indeed she had a number of UK chart hits in the 90s, including a no.1 single with a remix of her song ‘Professional Widow.’

April 13 will see deluxe re-issues of her first two albums, 1992’s Little Earthquakes and 1994’s Under The Pink. These not only include a number of great singles – ‘Pretty Good Year,’ ‘Crucify,’ ‘Winter’ and ‘Cornflake Girl’ but also some excellent b-sides. My favourite was ‘Sister Janet’ (the b-side of ‘Cornflake Girl’, but perhaps the most legendary was her take on Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’:

‘Take To The Sky’ is another Little Earthquakes‘ era b-side that suggests you really should snap these re-issues up:

Several years in the making, June 1 will see the release of the third Florence and the Machine album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.

The first single from the album ‘What Kind Of Man’ was released midway through last week (doing better in the Scottish charts than the UK ones, for those of you interested in such stats), and the band are being talked about as serious contenders to headline Glastonbury.

The excellent (but NSFW) video for ‘What Kind Of Man’ can be seen below.

The next few months look busy for some of the acts who first came to prominence during the post-punk era – and who refused to join the heritage circuit. Wire, who released their debut Pink Flag in 1977, will shortly release their 13th album, entitled Wire. The line up is now Colin Newman (vocals, guitar); Robert Grey (drums); Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), and former It Hugs Back guitarist Matthew Simms, who joined the band in 2012.

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ABOUT ME

ED
The rantings and ravings of a thirty-something music fan, from Edinburgh, Scotland.
I've been writing this blog since July 2006. I also write for Is This Music?, God Is In The TV and Louder Than War . I've had my own show on Fresh Air radio, DJed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in 2008 set up 17 Seconds Records.

Want to get in touch?

Please note: I receive a lot of emails every day encouraging me to check out new bands, but it does take a while to get through them all. Please do not send follow-up emails, it makes an already difficult job impossible.
I'm based in Scotland so the likelihood of me coming to your showcase in New York (unless you are going to provide travel, board and lodging is slim).
The best way is by this blog's own email address: seventeensecondsblog@hotmail.co.uk
...Did I mention about not sending follow-up emails?